McCain's First Important Executive Decision

ABOVE: The silver platter upon which John McCain just delivered the election to Barack Obama

Goddammit. I love John McCain, but dude, what were you thinking? Did you think that you could grab unhappy Hillary supporters just by picking a female VP candidate...who is outspoken about being Pro-Life, a gun enthusiast, anti-gay marriage, and who stated that she does not believe that human activity contributes to climate change? Based on her positions, she negates most of the advantages of being a chick. Hillary democrats are not going to flock to the republicans with those types of views.

She comes from a state that doesn't matter, so her popularity in the polar regions doesn't mean a thing in the lower 48. Maybe she can help to deliver Alaska's three electoral votes, though. Woo hoo. McCain could have picked Mitt Romney (who could have influenced Michigan and excited the conservative base) or Pawlenty, who is a well known, young, exciting and respected governor from a state that marginally matters more than Alaska. But instead he picks a woman who was not really on anyone's radar before today. And Palin even comes with her own scandal and ethics investigation (revolving around her firing of Alaska's Public Safety Commissioner because of his supposed refusal to fire her ex-brother-in-law from the state troopers).

The really baffling aspect of this pick is that it completely undermines McCain's strongest argument against Obama. McCain has been effectively making the point that Obama lacks sufficient experience to lead our nation in these troubled times. So then he picks a woman who has less than two years experience as governor of a state with the population of Austin, Texas. Before that she was mayor of a town of about 7000. Considering McCain's age and possible health problems, his pick for VP takes on more importance than your average VP selection. McCain was gaining ground with the experience gap argument, and he could have really developed it in the debates, but now it is moot.

Joe Biden should absolutely slaughter her in the VP debate. The only risk for Biden is that his own arrogance and that shit-eating grin he's always got might come across as patronizing. But what kind of foreign policy insights can she possibly have? About as much as most of my students.

Congratulations, President Obama.


ABOVE: Former beauty queen Sarah Palin wants to help John McCain lead our nation through these troubled times

Dez's Favorite Rock /Pop Records, #'s 40-36

40. Fine Young Cannibals – The Raw and the Cooked, 1989
This shortlived band (they only released two records) made a big splash when they were around. The first thing that jumps out at you are the amazing vocal stylings of Roland Gift, he could hit that falsetto like nobody else in pop. Secondly, the band had a fascinating combination of 50’s and 80’s rock styles. So many of their songs have a 50’s pop/soul feel and sensibility to them, but the music is firmly anchored by 80’s synthesizers and guitar playing. As the All-Music Guide boldly declared, “Mod, funk, Motown, British beat, R&B, punk, rock, and even disco are embedded within the songs…Never has music's past, present, and future been more exceptionally combined.” The big hits “She Drives Me Crazy” and “Good Thing” are outstanding, but the rest of this album is just as catchy and good. There is not a bad track here, and had MCA been so inclined, they could have released each of these tunes as a single. “Don’t Look Back” should have been a massive hit, and I am surprised that it wasn’t. This might be a band many people disregard as a one hit wonder, but I urge you to check this whole album out.

39. Love – Forever Changes, 1967
You know, even a music fiend such as I hear about legendary recordings over the years and for whatever reason it takes awhile to finally get around to checking them out. More often than not, these talked about “masterpieces” do not live up to the hype. #39 is one of those rare exceptions. I had always heard this album bandied about in reverential whispers, seen it appear on lots of critical Top Albums lists, and so forth. When I finally got around to checking it out, I was floored. It was one of those times where you actually just sit and listen to an album from start to finish, and are completely taken in by the sounds. I couldn’t even leave the car after I purchased it until I had gotten to the end, I just sat there in the parking lot listening. It is largely acoustic-based, but always interesting and turning down unexpected paths. Definitely a product of its time (with song titles like “Bummer in the Summer” and the easy to remember “Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale”), it also transcends them out of sheer musical goodness. Perhaps part of what makes it unique is that this was a multi-racial band (still unusual at the time). Arthur Lee was a black man who never quite fit in with the largely white hippie culture, yet he wanted to share in the sentiment of the times. Lee was a troubled soul, and struggled to complete this record because he was convinced he would die soon afterwards. But perhaps we should not analyze it to death, and just revel in this transcendently great piece of acoustic psychedelia.


ABOVE: Nothing else out there sounds quite like Love's Forever Changes

38. Fleetwood Mac – Rumours, 1977
#38 is one of the most successful rock records of the 70’s, just packed with hits and solid pop songs. Yes, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie deserve much credit for the Mac’s success, but this is really Lindsay Buckingham’s show. A criminally underrated guitar player, great singer, songwriter and visionary arranger and producer, it is Buckingham who brings it all together. Much has been made of the personal turmoil within the band at the time inspiring the great music (Christine and bassist John McVie’s marriage was breaking up, Lindsay and Stevie were also breaking up at the time, Stevie and drummer Mick Fleetwood were having a fleeting affair). But whatever the tortured inspiration, they turned out one hell of a record where the majority of the tracks were huge chart and/or radio hits. Music may be a cathartic way to deal with your life issues, but it is something altogether different when your estranged ones are in the same band with you. It is hard to get away at that point. Stevie Nicks has since commented how difficult it was for her to sing back-up vocals on Lindsay’s song “Go Your Own Way,” when the lyrics were clearly addressed to her (“Tell me why everything turned around / Packing up, shacking up, is all you wanna do”), while Christine McVie’s newly ex-husband John McVie has to play bass on her exuberant “You Make Loving Fun,” which celebrates her newfound joy in moving on to a new lover. Soap opera material never sounded so good.

37. Nick Drake – Pink Moon, 1972
Talk about belated recognition. This record was virtually unheard during Drake’s lifetime, it was only three decades later that it ceased to be a cult favorite and broke into the mainstream (in large part thanks to the title track’s use in a Volkswagon commercial). That is a real shame, because Drake deserved better. This solo acoustic gem is one of the most beautiful and intimate record I’ve come across. Drake’s guitar playing is both warm and complex, and it complements his wistful vocals perfectly. Drake’s personal travails are inextricably intertwined with his music, as he is now celebrated as a doomed romantic. The truth is that he had serious emotional and mental issues that were exacerbated by drug use. His untimely death is still hotly debated as to whether it was an overdose or a suicide. #37 is about as personal as a commercially released record can be, and at a scant 28 minutes, it packs an unforgettable, succinct punch. He recorded it alone in the studio with only the engineer present over two nights, and left the finished tapes at the front desk of his record company without a word to anyone. The tapes weren’t even noticed until about three days later when a secretary finally looked inside the package. In fact, his company was unaware that he was even working on a new record. #37 stands as the last music Drake recorded before his death.

36. Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon, 1973
The most cohesive album in rock, #36 maintains a dreamy, dark mood throughout. You don’t even have to be high to get into it. So much has been said about this classic (such as its spot in the Billboard charts for a record breaking 14 years!) that there is not much I can add to the discussion. The production is of particular note, especially considering the time period, almost like it was anticipating the clean, cold CD age. The volatile team of Roger Waters and David Gilmour were never more in sync than here. Waters’ dark ruminations on insanity, death and isolation work perfectly with Gilmour’s searing guitar work. My friend Walter Evans and I tested the infamous ‘Dark Side of the Rainbow’ effect: where if you sync the beginning of this record to the third roar of the black and white MGM lion at the beginning of ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ the film and music have a strange trippy synchronicity. It kinda works, but it took us forever to get the start just right. Try it. (I found the most effective parts to be during the tornado scene “Great Gig in the Sky” works extremely well, and it is creepy how the Munchkins dance in perfect rhythm to “Money”).

(Courtesy of File It Under blog)

The New Deal

I read recently that Excalibur in Las Vegas will feature Sin City's first dealer-free poker room. The human dealers will be replaced by fully automated tables that will take care of dealing the hands and keeping track of your chip count. Lose a hand, and the computer simply moves that amount of money over to the winner's account, and so forth. No real cards, no dealers, no chips to stack.


ABOVE: The future of poker? The new fully automated poker tables at Excalibur

The upside? You get a lot more hands for your time at the table. The table can deal 50% more Hold-Em hands per hour than a live dealer, and double the Omaha hands. The table can switch games immediately, if desired. It can run efficient tournaments and even be adjusted for heads-up play. And if you are grossed out by holding grimy chips that that have gone through 2000 other pairs of hands before yours, that can be a thing of the past.

Excalibur is doing this in part because it can. Excalibur is not the first (or even the seventh) poker room of choice in Vegas, so this new move might improve the traffic there (even if for only the novelty value). It is also a good financial decision because the computers can work 24 hours a day and don't need breaks or a health care plan. Excalibur plans on laying off over half of its poker room staff. That being said, it is doubtful that Bellagio or Binion's will ever get rid of the dealers and chips.

Personally, I love the feel of the chips in my hand, raking in a big pot and haughtily stacking them in front of me for several hands after my big win. I enjoy a saucy or humorous dealer to chew the fat with over the hours. I've never been a fan of online poker, to me it is a very human and social activity. Call me old school, but I will always prefer to play at a table with real people with real dealers controling the play and throwing around those real grimy chips into the early morning hours.

Barry's First Important Decision

Obama made his first important executive decision known to the public on Saturday morning, and I must say that it was probably the best one he could have made under the circumstances. Picking Joe Biden as his running mate was smart on many levels.

Although he was never seriously in the running for the nomination, Biden consistently made the biggest splash in the Democratic debates during the primaries. Not only was he usually the one with the sharpest wit or quip, but he also blew the other candidates (including Barack and Hillary) out of the water on foreign policy matters. Seeing that one of Obama's weaknesses is foreign policy and the "experience" factor, Biden is the perfect counterpart on the ticket. Obama is young and relatively inexperienced, Biden has decades of experience, including as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, at the forefront of foreign policy issues.

I think Biden is as wrong as Obama is on Iraq, but I find it interesting that Obama picked one of the more hawkish of the Democratic choices. His original partitioning of Iraq idea has fallen flat, and he has since aligned his views with Obama's. Biden stresses diplomacy first like Obama does, but he has never shirked from advocating military action when he felt it was needed. For instance, Biden was one of the more outspoken supporters of military intervention in the Balkans in the 1990's.

Biden is a good choice. He balances Obama's youth and inexperience with age and decades in public service. He is a noted attack dog, so that may relieve Obama from doing something he has seemed uncomfortable doing, and that is going negative on McCain. Now Biden can do that for him. Biden is a respected foreign policy expert, so that may make voters a bit more comfortable voting for Obama in a year where foreign policy is an important issue. The only risk here is that Biden has a history of putting his foot in his mouth. It was Biden last year who said that Obama was a formidable candidate because he was one of the first black leaders who was "clean and articulate."

Dez's Favorite Rock/Pop Records, #'s 45-41

Most albums featuring multiple artists fall short of greatness. It is hard to keep that essential cohesiveness and still have everyone at the top of their game. Remember that compilations are not allowed, but I kinda made an exception for #45, since most of it is made up of new material from one band.

45. ‘Friday Night Lights’ motion picture soundtrack, composed and performed by Explosions in the Sky and various artists, 2004
Excellent book, good film, near perfect television show, and gorgeous soundtrack. This is the soundtrack to the film (the released soundtrack to the TV show, unfortunately, is not that good). Explosions in the Sky is an instrumental group out of west Texas, and their moody, cinematic music (two guitars, drums, bass) perfectly captures the wide open spaces, possibilities, disappointments, triumphs, hardships and emotions of the film. It is extremely melodic, and the intertwining guitars weave complex webs of sound, as the music dramatically crescendos and then falls to quiet. Explosions in the Sky is responsible for about 80% or so of the soundtrack, but the rest of the music fits in with the mood nicely, such as a Brian Eno piece and even the one song with vocals, Bad Company’s lovely, little heard gem, the acoustic “Seagull.” But this soundtrack belongs to Explosions in the Sky, and they are responsible for its placing in this slot.


ABOVE: The music of Explosions in the Sky seems tailor-made for dramatic soundtracks

44. The Beatles – Revolver, 1966
#44 captures The Beatles in that magical middle period where they were beyond mere master pop songcraft and before the excess. It was a time of exciting musical experimentation where the four plus George Martin busted the possibilities of the studio wide open. Paul McCartney is a pop writer without parallel here: “Eleanor Rigby,” “Here, There and Everywhere,” “Got To Get You Into My Life,” “Good Day Sunshine,” “For No One”…each of these is pop genius songwriting from a man with arguably the greatest gift for melody rock has ever seen. John Lennon is the one to really push the boundaries, though. “I’m Only Sleeping” and “Tomorrow Never Knows” are on the vanguard of psychedelia, while “She Said She Said” and “Dr. Robert” are sly rockers referencing the emerging drug culture. George Harrison gets multiple tracks (finally) on a Beatles record, even opening it with the sarcastic rocker “Taxman.” Lennon and McCartney also throw Ringo a charming bone, letting him sing “Yellow Submarine.”


ABOVE: The Beatles at their peak

43. Radiohead – The Bends, 1995
Radiohead is considered one of the new saviors of rock and roll, and the praise and worship heaped upon them by both critics and rabid fans is indeed impressive. While I am not a Radiohead, err, Head, I have to concede they are one of the most important bands of the last 20 years. The Bends straddles the divide between Radiohead the mere rock band and Radiohead the new progressive gods. The guitars are still big, but the experimentation is already apparent. What impresses me about this album is that I hear bits of The Who, The Kinks and Pink Floyd, but they are not merely copying. They are influenced and then take those influences and use them in new and original ways. Listening to #43 all the way through in one sitting is almost too much, there is so much going on here, all of it great. “Black Star” is a personal fave.

42. U2 – Achtung Baby, 1991
The most successful reinvention in rock history. U2 pulled off the impressive hat trick of turning themselves from the ultimate band of heartfelt rock anthems to the ultimate band of ironic cool. Sensing they needed a change in direction before staleness set in, they took desperate measures. Bono announced that the band would have to “go away and dream it all up again.” What did that mean? Moving to Berlin to record and to soak up some of that Bowie/Eno late-70’s karma circa their Berlin Trilogy days, things got so tense that the band almost broke up in the process. Bono described the sound of the album as “four men trying to chop down ‘The Joshua Tree’.” But out of near disaster came one of the biggest records of the decade. With its dark Post-Soviet East European ambiance combining the Bowie/Eno avant-garde of the late 70’s with the more postmodern Madchester musical movement, Edge creates waves of industrial guitar noise, as the rhythm section of Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen pound away. But even here, U2’s earnest heart shines through (they can’t really help themselves), such as on the gorgeous “One.” This record gave U2 another 15-20 years of relevance.

41. Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, 1969
Neil’s debut solo record was rather timid, but he got it right on his sophomore effort, his first and finest with his garage backing band Crazy Horse. “Cinnamon Girl” and the title track are two tight rockers, and “The Losing End” is a fine rolling country number. But everyone remembers this classic because of the two extended jams that capture everything great about Neil and Crazy Horse, “Down By the River” and “Cowgirl in the Sand.” Neil solos with such passion and abandon on these feverish jams, he establishes himself in the upper echelon of guitar greats, even though his actual technique is quite rudimentary. But that was really the point. I call them “feverish” not only because of how they are performed, but because Neil actually wrote both epics in the same day when he was bedridden with a high fever. If only we could all be that productive on our sick days! At any rate, out of Neil’s vast and impressive discography, #41 is one of every fan’s favorites. Many of these tunes are still deservedly concert staples.


ABOVE: One of Neil's finest